Craig Lindsay Lefferts was a relief pitcher for the Chicago Cubs

Chicago Cubs

The Chicago Cubs are a professional baseball team located in Chicago, Illinois. They are members of the Central Division of Major League Baseball's National League. They are one of two Major League clubs based in Chicago . The Cubs are also one of the two remaining charter members of the National...

 (1983), San Diego Padres

San Diego Padres

The San Diego Padres are a Major League Baseball team based in San Diego, California. They play in the National League Western Division. Founded in 1969, the Padres have won the National League Pennant twice, in 1984 and 1998, losing in the World Series both times...

 (1984–87 and 1990–92), San Francisco Giants

San Francisco Giants

The San Francisco Giants are a Major League Baseball team based in San Francisco, California, playing in the National League West Division....

 (1987–89), Baltimore Orioles

Baltimore Orioles

The Baltimore Orioles are a professional baseball team based in Baltimore, Maryland in the United States. They are a member of the Eastern Division of Major League Baseball's American League. One of the American League's eight charter franchises in 1901, it spent its first year as a major league...

 (1992), Texas Rangers

Texas Rangers (baseball)

The Texas Rangers are a professional baseball team in the Dallas-Fort Worth Metroplex, based in Arlington, Texas. The Rangers are a member of the Western Division of Major League Baseball's American League, and are the reigning A.L. Western Division and A.L. Champions. Since , the Rangers have...

 (1993) and California Angels

Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim

The Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim are a professional baseball team based in Anaheim, California, United States. The Angels are a member of the Western Division of Major League Baseball's American League. The "Angels" name originates from the city in which the team started, Los Angeles...

 (1994). He is currently the pitching coach for the Stockton Ports

Stockton Ports

The Stockton Ports are a baseball team in Stockton, California. The Ports play in the Northern Division of the Class A – Advanced California League and are a Minor League affiliate of the Oakland Athletics. Their home field is Banner Island Ballpark which seats over 5,000 people and opened in...

.

Craig graduated from the University of Arizona and was the winning pitcher in the 1980 College World Series title game, defeating the University of Hawaii 5-3 at Rosenblatt Stadium in Omaha, Neb. He was named to the 1980 College World Series all-tournament team. He was then drafted by the Chicago Cubs in the 9th round of the 1980 amateur draft

1980 Major League Baseball Draft

-First round selections:The following are the first round picks in the 1980 Major League Baseball draft.- Compensation Picks :*William Erickson, was drafted in the second round by the San Francisco Giants, 31st pick overall. *Jeff Horne was drafted in the second round by the Pittsburgh Pirates,...

.

He helped the Padres win the 1984 NL Pennant and the Giants win the 1987 NL Western Division and 1989 NL Pennant.

In the winter of 1985 he was offered to the New York Mets

New York Mets

The New York Mets are a professional baseball team based in the borough of Queens in New York City, New York. They belong to Major League Baseball's National League East Division. One of baseball's first expansion teams, the Mets were founded in 1962 to replace New York's departed National League...

 in exchange for outfielder Lenny Dykstra

Lenny Dykstra

Leonard Kyle "Lenny" Dykstra , nicknamed "Nails" and "Dude", is a former Major League Baseball center fielder. Dykstra played for the New York Mets during the late 1980s before playing for the Philadelphia Phillies during the early 1990s....

. Frank Cashen

Frank Cashen

John Francis Cashen is a former Major League Baseball general manager. He is widely considered to be the architect of the World Champion 1986 New York Mets and was also an executive while the Baltimore Orioles won the 1966 World Series and 1970 World Series.-Early life:Cashen was born in...

, then Mets GM at the time, declined the offer. The Mets

METS

The Metadata Encoding and Transmission Standard is a metadata standard for encoding descriptive, administrative, and structural metadata regarding objects within a digital library, expressed using the XML schema language of the World Wide Web Consortium...

 later acquired Bobby Ojeda instead.

The 86 games he pitched in during 1986 not only led the National League but remains a Padres single season record.

As of the end of the 2008 season he ranked tied with Hall of Famer Grover Cleveland Alexander

Grover Cleveland Alexander

Grover Cleveland Alexander , nicknamed "Old Pete", was an American Major League Baseball pitcher. He played for the Philadelphia Phillies, Chicago Cubs, and St. Louis Cardinals and was elected into the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1938.-Career:Alexander was born in Elba, Nebraska, one of thirteen...

 for 88th on the MLB All-Time Games Pitched List (696).

In 12 seasons he had a win-loss record of 58-72, 45 games started, 1 complete game, 286 games finished, 101 saves, 1,145 2/3 innings, 1,108 hits allowed, 490 runs allowed, 436 earned runs allowed, 120 home runs allowed, 322 walks allowed, 719 strikeouts, 31 wild pitches, 4,754 batters faced, 55 intentional walks, 10 balks and a 3.43 ERA.

Sources